Ft. Collins - Greyrock Mountain Trail

Ft. Collins - Greyrock Mountain Trail

Today was a bit different than usual; it was a hike on a Saturday on a popular trail.  Wow, what a pile of people on the trail.  I saw all types; young, old, with dogs, without dogs, rock climbers, trail runners, folks well dressed for the weather and those in shorts and T-shirts.  I even saw two fellows with their babies on their back (the wives were following)!

This was the third time I had been on the Greyrock Mountain Trail.  The first was 2012 soon after the High Park fire.  This area had been burned extensively.  At that time I was not familiar with the trail and my route finding skills were untested.  Several places on the meadow trail the trail had been obliterated by the fire, so I bushwhacked my way back down and to the trailhead without making it to the mountain.

The second time was in October of 2012, where I took the trail that led directly to the summit.  This time I made it to the summit and was pretty proud.  At that time, the area had recently been reseeded by air.

Today, I decided to tackle a counter clockwise loop.  A clockwise loop had been my plan on the first trip.  Today, I decided counter clockwise, so I could get to the summit of the mountain first, then decide if I wanted to loop through the meadows.  There was snow forecast for later in the day.  All north-facing and shaded areas were icy just like the picture shows.

Trial ice

As I crossed the bridge over the Poudre River, I saw some cool looking ice formations.

Poudre River (1)

Poudre River (2)

The trail generally climbs through a gulch until it tops out about half mile from the mountain.  The climb to the top of the mountain is quite challenging.  It is very steep, full of rocks & boulders, and sometimes difficult to find.  Once you get near the top you find a large bowl that is flat and full of trees and a small lake.  Very interesting formation.  I'm sure some glacier carved it out.

Greyrock Bowl

The actual climb to the top is sort of marked by some trail signs, but there seem to be many ways to the top.  It is all a scramble anyway.  Once to the top the 360 degree views are astounding.

Looking generally south.  Summit is just a few feet from here

 If you look closely at the next picture, you can barely see Horsetooth Reservoir.  It was a lot easier in person.  Sometimes cameras just don't do the scenery justice.

Looking generally east from near the summit. 

 Notice that the storm has socked in Cameron Pass to the west.

Looking west.  

I'm sure that not everyone would agree, but I find going down a scramble to be much more challenging that going up.  It seems that while going up I get winded, but going down hurts more.  This was no exception.  After getting down safely, I decided that since the weather still looked good, the wind was still manageable, and I was still feeling pretty spry, I decided to tackle the meadow trail and make it a loop.  The trail leads down the south west ridge to the meadow, not a steep descent but still interesting.  The meadow is quite spectacular.  I'm sure it is every more awesome in the summer with green all around.

The Greyrock Meadow

 In the middle of the meadow there is a large boulder out by itself.  As I did a cursory look around the meadow, it didn't seem that was another lonely boulder anywhere to be found.  I guess this was glaciation at work again.

Meadow Boulder

Once through the meadow, you have to climb about 300 feet to reach the top of the next ridge line where it will be all steep downhill from there.  About halfway up the climb, you get a great view of Greyrock Mountain.

Greyrock Mountain

On the way down the meadow trail, you get some nice views of the Hewlett Gulch trail from Trailhead to the about the Spaulding Mine.  Kind of cool to see that trail from a different perspective. By the way, that parking lot was full too.  Finally, I made it back to the trailhead where I discovered not only was the parking lot full, but there were quit a few cars parked on both sides of the road.

Trailhead

I have to say this was quite the challenging hike; the trail to Greyrock wasn't challenging, but the climb to the summit and the long pounding descent on the meadows trail on a trail with quite a bit of ice makes you concentrate on the trail, not the view.

All in all a good day, but I think I'll not repeat this one any time soon and when I do, it will be on a weekday.

Overall Track Statistics for Ft. collins - greyrock,   1286 data points

 Length 7.664 miles  :  Garmin Length 8.320 miles

 Start Elevation - 5560.86 feet

 Maximum Elevation - 7562.80 feet

 Minimum Elevation - 5529.66 feet

 Date of Hike - Jan 30, 2016

 Start Time - 08:41 AM

 End Time - 01:03 PM

 Total Duration -     4:22 hours:min

 Total Ascent - 3015.35 feet

 Total Descent - 2996.62 feet

 Net Ascent - 18.73 feet

 Maximum Grade - 23.93%

 Average Speed -  1.75 mph :  Garmin Average Speed  1.90 mph

 Maximum Ascent over Mile - 850.82 feet

 Maximum Speed over Mile -  2.25 mph

 Maximum Gain over Mile (%) - 15.81%